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Staking Cosmos (ATOM) FAQs

Everything you need to know about staking Cosmos (ATOM) from your Exodus wallet.

In this article:

What is Cosmos staking and how can I benefit from it?

Staking your ATOM is a great way to earn passive income in the form of staking rewards. Rewards are paid out in ATOM. You can view it as earning interest on your crypto holdings. With Cosmos, staking means you agree to lock up an amount of your ATOM that you choose for a certain period of time during which it is unspendable. However, you can unlock your ATOM whenever you choose.

By staking your ATOM, you actively support the Cosmos network by allocating resources to it and contributing to the stability of the Cosmos network. In return for your support, you earn more ATOM as a reward!

What actually happens when I stake my ATOM?

In order to stake your ATOM, what you are really doing is delegating an amount of your ATOM to a so-called “validator”, this makes you a “delegator”. The Cosmos validators validate and approve transactions on the Cosmos blockchain. The more ATOM that is delegated to them, the more transactions they get to validate and the more powerful they become. By delegating your tokens to them, you basically “vote” for and signal your trust in them.

The more transactions a validator validates, the more money they earn. From the earned rewards, they give back to all the people who delegated their ATOM to them. This is how you earn your interest.

How does staking work?

When you stake your ATOM, you are able to choose how much of your ATOM you want to delegate to the validator. You can stake any amount of ATOM for which you immediately start accumulating rewards. During this time, you will only be able to perform transactions with the unstaked amount of ATOM inside your wallet.

When you stake ATOM, Exodus will reserve 0.0595 ATOM that stays in your ATOM wallet. This reserve is to ensure that you have enough ATOM available to pay for the network fees when you wish to unstake.

Staking new ATOM will automatically claim any unclaimed rewards, which will result in a network transaction fee.

How does unstaking work?

When you decide to unstake your ATOM, again you can choose the amount you want to unstake. The amount you choose to unstake will now become unbonding, and you will need to wait 21 days to be able to use it again. This unstaked ATOM does not earn rewards for the 21-day unbonding period.

When you unstake your ATOM, if you have any unclaimed rewards they will be auto-claimed.

When you unstake some ATOM this amount becomes unbonding. This means that from any given validator you can at most unstake 7 times in a 21 day period (if you try more the unstake will fail). You must wait for one of the previous unstaking entries to expire.

Which validator will I be delegating my funds to?

When you stake your ATOM inside of Exodus, you will be delegating funds to our staking API provider Everstake.

How much can I earn from staking my ATOM?

To find out more about what Annual Percentage Yield (APY) is and how to view the current APY for ATOM, check out this Knowledge Base article: What is APY.

You can also find the latest yield on the Staking Rewards website here: Cosmos staking rewards

Does Exodus charge a fee to stake my ATOM?

You will pay network transaction fees when staking Cosmos. These fees are not kept by Exodus but go to the Cosmos network in full.

You will pay a transaction fee for sending the delegation transaction when you stake your ATOM, as well as whenever you stake additional ATOM.

You will also pay a transaction fee to claim ATOM rewards.

To claim your ATOM rewards, you will need to wait until you have earned enough ATOM to cover the network fee.

What is the minimum amount I need to start staking?

A minimum of 0.05 ATOM is required to start staking. This is enough to ensure you can stake as well as pay the Cosmos transaction fee.

When will I start earning rewards?

You will start to earn rewards on the staked amount instantly!

You won’t earn rewards on your balance of unclaimed staking rewards. If you want your rewards to compound, you’ll need to claim the rewards and stake them.

Is staking ATOM safe?

Staking your ATOM is done in a non-custodial way in Exodus. That means it is as safe as holding ATOM in your wallet. You keep full control over your tokens while they are staked, and you’re free to unstake your funds whenever you choose, although it will take 21 days before your ATOM is available to send or exchange.

How do I stake my ATOM inside of Exodus?

Mobile

First, open your Cosmos wallet inside of Exodus on your mobile, then tap on the Stake icon to open the Cosmos rewards section.

Tap on Stake ATOM.

To start staking your ATOM, a) enter the amount of ATOM you want to stake and b) tap on Stake ATOM.

Desktop

Open up your Exodus wallet and head over to the Rewards app.

Navigate to where it says Cosmos and then click on Get Reward.

Then, enter the amount of ATOM you want to stake and finally click on Stake ATOM.

How do I unstake my ATOM inside of Exodus?

Mobile

First, open your Cosmos wallet inside of Exodus on your mobile, then tap on the Stake icon to open the Cosmos rewards section.

Tap on Unstake ATOM.

To unstake your ATOM, a) enter an amount of ATOM you want to unstake and b) tap on Unstake ATOM.

When you unstake ATOM this amount becomes unbonding. From any given validator you can only unstake 7 times in a 21 day period. If you try to unstake after you have already done 7 unstake transactions in a 21 day period, the additional unstake transactions will fail. You must wait for one of the previous unstaking entries to expire. Remember that you will need to wait 21 days for you to be able to send this ATOM.

Desktop

Open up your Exodus wallet and head over to the Rewards app.

Navigate to where it says Cosmos and then click on Overview.

Then, click on the Unstake tab at the top, enter the amount of ATOM you want to unstake, and finally click on Unstake ATOM.

When you unstake ATOM this amount becomes unbonding. From any given validator you can only unstake 7 times in a 21 day period. If you try to unstake after you have already done 7 unstake transactions in a 21 day period, the additional unstake transactions will fail. You must wait for one of the previous unstaking entries to expire. Remember that you will need to wait 21 days for you to be able to send this ATOM.

How do I claim my ATOM rewards?

Mobile

First, open your Cosmos wallet inside of Exodus on your mobile, then tap on the Stake icon to open the Cosmos rewards section.